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West Africa

Telesurgery Carried Out from Florida on an Angolan Patient Living 11,000 Kms Away

June 23, 2025

(3 Minutes Read)

The procedure performed at AdventHealth Global Robotics Institute could significantly impact global healthcare by providing advanced surgical options to patients in underserved regions that would otherwise lack access to advanced medical care.

A robotic prostatectomy surgery was performed remotely from Florida on a patient in Angola as part of an FDA-approved clinical trial. The robotic system is connected to multiple locations around the world, including Sao Paulo, Kuwait, Morocco, Shanghai, and Angola, allowing for the potential to provide medical care globally from a single location.

The prostatectomy — partial or complete removal of the prostate — on June 14 was also the first in the world to be done over such a distance, they said. It was “successfully performed” by Vipul Patel, medical director at the Global Robotics Institute, part of AdventHealth hospital in Celebration, Florida.

The procedure spanned nearly 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometres), making it the longest distance telesurgery ever completed,” AdventHealth said in a statement. The Complexo Hospitalar Cardeal Dom Alexandre do Nascimento (CHDC) in Angola’s capital, Luanda, said it was “the first teleassisted surgery performed in Angola and on the African continent.” A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, engineers, and a member of Patel’s team was present in the operating bloc, the CHDC said.

Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for men in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Global Cancer Observatory. Many countries on the continent, including Angola, have limited access to early detection and specialised surgical care.